


Ruby Red Slippers

by jordanthenerd



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Awkward Sexual Situations, Consensual Kink, F/M, Face-Fucking, Flirting, Fluff and Smut, I'm Bad At Tagging, Loss of Innocence, Multiple Sole Survivors, Oral Sex, Rough Sex, Sarcasm, Semi-Public Sex, Sex, Sexual Humor, Sexual Tension, Shaun has a sister, Slow Burn, Smut, Sole Survivor Older Sister, The Sole Survivor isn't a mom, Touch-Starved, Wizard of Oz References
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-12
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2020-10-13 12:40:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 5
Words: 19,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20582654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jordanthenerd/pseuds/jordanthenerd
Summary: "Dogmeat...I don't think I'm in Boston anymore."Dorothy hated the irony behind her name. Almost as much as she hated putting her education on a standstill to help her father and stepmother take care of a new baby boy they had just given birth to so that Nora could get back in the office and Nate could continue his job hunt. But when the bombs drop and the world is turned to ash, Dorothy and her family are forced to retreat into the local vault, unbeknownst to the horrific cryogenic experiment they would be part of that would secure them in the vault for over two hundred years.When Dorothy is finally awakened, she is unleashed on a hunt for blood and her baby brother, Shaun."I'm fighting for two hundred years of college, student loans, and sex that Vault-Tec stole from me, MacCready! Don't tell me that I'm being unreasonable! The second that I find the fucking Institute, they're going to be writing me a fat paycheck,""...what about the other thing?""Jesus Christ, Mac, was sex all you heard?""With legs like those and a mouth like yours, it's hard not to hear anything else, gorgeous."





	1. Goodnight Moon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dorothy is enjoying a typical morning in Sanctuary Hills, circa October 2077. But nobody could have predicted the violent and nuclear end to the day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is going to be a slow burn book and definitely not a classical 'Sole Survivor leaves the vault to avenge husband and find kidnapped son'. Sit back and enjoy the ride. It will be a long one. Feedback is definitely appreciated.

**Concord, Massachusetts**

**Sanctuary Hills**

**Circa October 2077**

Dorothy knew two things were certain in her day to day life. 

The inevitable, three cup dosage of extra strength, dark roast coffee every morning, served at precisely 173 degrees Farenheight, courtesy of the Mister Handy unit, Codsworth. He insisted on reminding her that it was made according to her liking. Of course, it was these little gestures Dorothy had come to appreciate. 

_And then_ there was the ever understood rule of _Goodnight Moon_ every evening as baby Shaun was drifting off. It had become the newborn infant's favorite book, as odd as it sounded. Nora and Nate had often joked with Dorothy about Shaun knowing if it was _Goodnight Moon _or if Dorothy had been the one to read it judging by the way their baby would wake up squalling his lungs out. 

Dorothy was apprehensive to hear that her father had gotten his rather young wife pregnant, a woman who was barely twelve years her senior. Granted, her father was young himself, having helped conceive Dorothy with an old high school fling his senior year. But, he handled fatherhood with grace. Despite the slightest bit of jealousy, she was happy that Shaun would have the childhood she had been deprived of. 

A loving household.   
A mother who wanted him.  
An ever-present father since Nate finished his contract earlier this year.   
And a normal, _fucking _name. 

Jesus Christ, Dorothy hated her name. Between the shitty jokes about Kansas and Toto, or the jokes about the ditsy fish Dory (which was her preferred nickname) she couldn't go more than a week without threatening to break someone's nose. And on occasion? She did. She didn't have any problem dealing punches where they were needed, and sometimes, she preferred to use her strong arm over talking things out cordially. Like an adult. _Fuck adulthood. _

Dorothy had grown up in quite a broken household. Her birth mother had given her up shortly after she was born, terminating her parental rights in search of stardom. According to Nate, she died of an overdose Dorothy she was ten. This left Nate to be the only parent in Dorothy's life, and with his career in the military taking off, he wasn't always there. It made for a tense relationship as she got older. Not that it was easily mended, especially when she learned he had taken a new wife, but it made it much easier when he offered Dorothy his Active Duty Education Stipend and Retirement G.I. Bill for her to go to college on. 

In the midst of her junior year of college, her dear dad pushed the envelope of their relationship by asking her if she would take the fall semester online so she could give a hand around the house while Nora adjusted to the postpartum and settled back in at the law firm, while Nate sought out civilian jobs. Driven by guilt and the love for her darling infant brother, 'Aunt Dory' as she felt inclined to call herself in the presence of Shaun, agreed. 

So here Dory stood, on the porch of the quaint, powder blue home in Sanctuary Hills, nursing her second cup of coffee as she basked in the warmth of the rising sun, trying to block out the noise inside...Nora was whirling around the house in a sporadic mess, blubbering about being late as Nate attempted to calm her. Shaun was crying, Codsworth was chortling about the weather, and the TV wouldn't _shut the fuck up._ Dorothy hated that TV. There seemed to be nothing on but bad news anymore.

She watched as the paperboy was still making his routes, doing his best to peg every mailbox with a rolled _Boston Bugle. _Sprinklers were misting the chill morning air and...Dorothy's eyes left the warm and peaceful grassy hills of the neighborhood and fell upon the Military Tanks and IFVs crawling through the streets and Vertibirds cutting through the air noisily. 

_This probably isn't helping with Dad's PTSD too much..._Dorothy thought to herself. 

With a roll of her bright, forest green eyes she decided two cups would be enough and she headed into the warzone of the house. She busied herself with cleaning her coffee cup before she tended to Shaun, making sure he was fine as he pinched her pinkie between his delicate warm and soft bitty fingers as she cooed at him lovingly. 

"Aunt Dory loves you _very _much, Shaunie Boy!" Dorothy giggled as Shaun opened up his small toothless mouth reflexively in wonder-oh, no, that was a yawn...and he's spitting up. Dorothy scrunched her nose and grabbed the burping rag off the changing table and wiped the swaddled baby's face before kissing his forehead and walking into the kitchen where at last Nora stood with Nate as they talked idly. 

"Good morning," Dory greeted, Nate's brown eyes warming as they fell upon his daughter. 

"Morning, Dory," He smiled at her. "Thanks for looking after Shaun, I really appreciate it,"

"_We _appreciate it!" Nora interjected politely, nudging Nate sarcastically. He chuckled and kissed Nora's temple lovingly. 

Dory tried to act like the display of affection didn't bother her. After all, she was sacrificing her social life and sex life to play Nanny. The wild college parties, the alcohol, the ridiculously stupid freshmen, and the Greek life parties. She would have to settle for a couch and online classrooms. Which, didn't sound too terrible, but to go from having her own apartment to sharing a room in a house full of people, well, it didn't quite sit right. 

There was a knock at the front door and Nora perked a perfect brown brow. 

"It's that Vault-Tech loon," Dory sighed as she walked over to the recliner and collapsed on it, pulling her laptop into her lap to log into her classes. "He's been coming by all week asking for one of you,"

"You couldn't handle him?" Nora asked and Dorothy slightly irked at her accusatory tone. Green eyes met Nora's dark blue eyes and in her soul, Nora felt as though, perhaps, that may not have been the best choice of words. 

"The last I checked, Nora, my name isn't on the mortgage," Dory spoke dryly as she scrolled through the Math questions. 

"I didn't mean it like-,"

"No, no, of course not," Dorothy waved her off. "I'm just living in your house, eating your food, using your wifi," _Taking care of your son..._

"Dorothy," Nate coughed and Nora grimaced. 

"I'll go handle the salesman," Nora quietly muttered. 

"If it's free, just sign us all up," Nate told her as Nora headed for the door. "Better safe than sorry, right?"

As Nora answered the door, Nate turned an expressionless look of his adult daughter who shot him a daring glare. Nate gnawed on his lower lip tentatively as he thought before speaking, overhearing his wife's cheery tone as she greeted the Vault-Tech man. His eyes fell on his daughter and his heart twinged. She was a woman. And be damned if she wasn't her mother reimagined. Her mother was a gorgeous dame, with platinum blonde hair, bright green eyes, and a million-watt smile that seemed to light up any room. Anytime she walked in a room she commanded the attention like a maestro with an orchestra. 

Dorothy was the spitting image of her mother, however, much more pleasant.But he took solace in knowing she still received attributes from him. Where her mom was short and curvy, Nate could tell she had her height from him. In fact, Dory often complained she hated being tall, because jeans rose too high on her ankles, skirts were always too short, and the few boys that weren't terrified of her stood nearly a head shorter than she. 

"Go easy on her," Nate chose to say. He didn't miss the eye roll. 

"Tell her that,"

"I will," Nate said, startling Dory. "But I need you to work with me. This won't be forever. And we could really use the help,"

"Okay," Dory sighed before perking up. "Oh, hey, Codsworth, can you bring me a pencil and paper?" She called over to the Mister Handy who was wiping the countertops down. 

"Right away, Miss!" Codsworth vowed before veering off into the laundry room and returning with a pencil and notepad clutched in his metal claws and offered it to Dorothy who accepted it graciously with a bright smile. 

“Life’s what you make it,” Nate told his daughter knowingly as he bent over and brushed a gentle kiss against her forehead. “It doesn’t have to be all bad. Just give Nora some time, okay?”

”I’ll try and keep that in mind,” Dory sighed as she huddled over her homework once more. 

Life wasn’t all bad. Now that Nate was out of the Army, he had more time to focus on his family. Including his almost 21-year-old daughter. They had an estranged relationship since Nate was constantly on the move with the Army all of her life. He hoped that in the years to come, she would find it in her heart to forgive him. Dorothy felt similarly, knowing that the man who helped create her was little more than a stranger, yet her father nonetheless. But where life had finally seemed to plateau out for him at last, the Sino-American War was reaching a peak. You couldn’t throw a rock without hitting a soldier in Power Armor. It was a horrific warning that the war was knocking on the front door of the USA. And that terrified Nate. If there was one thing he knew from his tours in China and the Soviet Union, its that **w****ar never changes.**

Dory was proud of her dad, nonetheless. In her designated room, hanging on her closet was a cute cocktail dress number, steamed and ready for the Veteran's Banquet that night 

Codsworth was helping Dory calculate a particularly _heinous _pre-cal equation when the telltale signs of an infant crying reached Dorothy's ears and Codsworth's sensors. Nate perked up from scanning through the _Boston Bugle _for job listings while the robot and his daughter exchanged a look. Dory grinned deviously and Codsworth gave quite the tedious sigh.

"9:40," Dory sang to the robot who's metal arms slumped. It was now his hour to take care of baby Shaun. "Of course, I could do it-,"

"Miss, I do not wish to become a flying, metal _pumpkin_ for Halloween, I shall see to young Shaun immediately," Codsworth spoke pointedly. They had a running deal that is Dory had to look after Shaun in Codsworth's hour, he would succumb to Dorothy's Halloween costume ideas. Of course, it would be just as easy to tell her no, since he solely belonged to Nate and Nora, but deep in Codsworth's programming, he appreciated the friendly banter. He would also never admit that the prospect of gambling...delighted him to some tenth degree.

"I hope you'll be up for a game of checkers later," Dory called after the Mister Handy who paused in his flight to the nursery to regard her with a most _dubious _expression on his many eye sensors. 

"My sensors indicate you won't be," He told her simply as he pivoted on his single-jet, hovering system and retreated to Shaun's room. It took a moment for Dory to digest what the robot had just told her before her jaw unhinged and a gasp whisked down her throat. 

"D-Did Codsworth just _shit talk _me?!"

Nate was coughing to hide a laugh just as the front door closed and Nora leaned against it with a groan. In the background, Shaun's crying had begun to fade, indicating Codsworth was doing his job. Nora smoothed out her green blouse and ran a hand through her elegant brown hair before she grimaced at Nate. 

"Hey, it's peace of mind, that's worth a piece of paperwork," Nate told her and Nora offered a tentative smile as she walked over to the couch to rub her husband's strong shoulders. 

"For you and Shaun, no price is too high," She told him lovingly and then glanced at the young adult in the recliner who was shooting daggers at Nora with her eyes. "I made sure to list you as well, Dory," 

"Thanks," The college student spoke with a hint of malice in her tone. Dory was convinced that Nora _loved _making jabs at her just to cause her grief and remind her that she wasn't a true part of their family. Nate opened his mouth to address Nora when Shaun's crying stopped him. 

"Mrs. Nora," Codsworth entered the living room, the cries of Shaun following behind him. "I do believe young Shaun is in need of that _maternal affection _you are so good at!" 

Nora nodded and left to the nursery, Nate giving a slight nod at his perturbed daughter as he followed after his young wife to tend their son. 

"Try not to fret," She heard Codsworth speak as the young woman tucked her feet under her with a sigh. "Worry causes wrinkles, and your face doesn't need any of those, miss,"

"'preciate it, Codsworth," Dory smiled. 

"Now, how about a third cup of coffee? By my calculations, you've only had two, a startling change-," 

In that cheery moment, with the birds chirping, the fall air twisting colorful leaves around outside, and the voices of her father and stepmother gently talking in Shaun's nursery... Codsworth was cut off by a blaring alarm from the television. 

Ice filled Dorothy's stomach, and the cold seeped into her blood, spreading through her body. 

Her laptop hit the ground in a noisy clatter, but her ears didn't hear it. 

As she stared at the word **_Emergency _**on the screen of the TV, she suddenly felt numb. 

_Thump-thump..._Her heart lurched. 

_Thump-thump..._It didn't feel like it was beating right her chest. 

**_Thump-thump..._** She could make out Codsworth screaming for Nora at Nate as her heart began to pound in her ribcage like a kick drum. The only time she had ever felt remotely similar to this was when she was graduating the sixth grade, and her father had been called on an emergency deployment, letting her down with so much pain and abandonment. 

She could hear her family scrambling into the room, her father's hands grasping her shoulders. 

This was different. 

Slowly, Dory began to return to her senses having been evoked by the touch of her father. 

The well-dressed man on the TV was distressed. Clutching his forehead in gut-wrenching horror, he hid his tearful face from the camera as he read the paperwork and tablet before him. Outside...the sirens began to whine. 

_"...followed by blinding flashes, sounds of explosions. We are trying to get confirmation, but we seem to have lost contact with our affiliate news station... no, but, we do have coming in confirmed reports, I repeat, confirmed reports of nuclear detonations in New York and Pennsylvania...oh my God..."_

The distressed reporter was forevermore replaced with the blank screen that read "Please Standby."

"We need to get to the vault!" Nora shouted, arms still clutching the infant Shaun. "Now!" 

Nate pulled a stunned Dory to her feet, handing her a pair of her shoes that were near the door, having to practically help the girl put them on. "Come on, Dory, work with me!"

"Dad...I'm scared," Dory whispered at last as Nora stood outside, bouncing Shaun gently. Nate pressed a reassuring kiss against his daughter's forehead and grabbed both of her shoulders. 

"I am, too," He told her, and she could plainly make out the terror in his brown eyes. "But I need you to run. We need to run. And we can't look back,"

"The vault?" Dory choked out as her dad lead her out into the street. 

"The vault," He answered soundly.

And, oh _God_, the chaos! The streets were in utter pandemonium as soldiers raced back and forth, tanks barrelling through the streets and the innocent citizens, screamed and sobbed as they ran amock. The mayhem of arguing families, crying children, shouting soldiers, the deafening whirr of the Verti-Birds lingering overhead caused a babel and anxiety in Dorothy's emotion strung brains. The light from the sun was blinding, the wind was chapping her face, and the colors blurred as she and her family scrambled though the forest path toward the vault. 

Her chest was heaving, rising and falling with panic as the mayhem ensued. She could hear her father's voice, yelling for her to follow him as they began to scale a steep hill, fences forcing a perimeter and soldiers in power armor stood outside. She could see families in swarms shaking the fence, screaming for help and in the midst was their lovely, local, vault-tech. 

"-_I am Vault-Tech!"_ She could make out the salesman shouting angrily at a soldier with a clipboard. "I'm going in! You can't stop me!" He told the soldier only to retreat as a minigun was pointed at him. As the Vault-Tech salesman fled, he met the eyes of the family he had just signed up for the local vault. 

But they didn't have a moment to dwell. 

"We need to get into the vault!" Nora shouted, pushing through the crowd of people, eyes flashing angrily, daring the soldier to tell her otherwise. "We're on the list!" 

The soldier's eyes fell over the small family, Nate holding his panting daughter close against his chest. 

"Two adult females, adult male, infant, yeah, everything is here, go on in."

They didn't need to be told twice as the family bolted past the gated fence. There were vault-tech guards everywhere, waving them in the proper directions and one guided them onto the elevator, a cantankerous blue and yellow metal structure secured into the earth. Nate's hands finally left Dory's shoulders as they found space on the elevator, screaming and begging for them to send it down. 

Hot tears bled down Dory's cheeks, seeing havoc in the streets and cities below, the blaring alarm of the vault elevator going down was deafening.

This couldn't be happening. 

"Dory," Nate had looked at his daughter and smiled at her reassuringly, despite the fear on his face. "I love you,"

"I love you, too, dad-,"

Then there was light. 

It was so bright it seemed to fill every nook and cranny and bleached everything white. Everyone hid their faces as the vault elevator finally began to descend with the deafening screeching of metal on metal. The light seemed to fade quickly. Dory and the others looked up to see a mushroom cloud of flame and smoke, miles into the distance, stretching into the atmosphere, and the iridescent, heat of the radiation blast was quickly racing towards them like a stampede of horses. 

> _And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him..._

The vault elevator moved slowly, but thankfully, they had sunken low enough that the blast skimmed over the surface of the vault. All Dory could hear was screaming. Her screaming. And everything went black....

[][][][]

It was cold and damp underground, the ever constant flicker of the fluorescent lights seemed to wake Dorothy out of her traumatized stupor. All around her, she could hear the gasping sobs of her neighbors, horrified the same as she was that everything was gone. She could feel Nate's hands on her shoulders again, gripping her tight as if she might disappear or turn to ash before him. But they were alive. Somehow they had made it. But all those people outside the vault gate...

Dory flinched as she felt Nate guiding her forward. 

"-_A better future, underground!"_

Dorothy could make out the Overseer was talking to them, telling them to proceed up the stairs. All she could think is if they had been just a moment later...just a second...

"Dory," Nate's voice brought her back from the reality she kept trying to avoid. Her head whipped up as she felt her ankles hit the stairs. She swallowed nervously, shivering slightly at the cold air and began to scale the steps one at a time. She entered the threshold of the huge vault, Nora and Nate close behind her and Nora clung to her baby boy like her life depended on it. Or maybe it did. Dory didn't know whether to make heads or tails of this whole situation. They were _alive_ that's all that should matter...right?

The long, metal platform leads to a series of scientists and vault staff, one of which was handing out suits. The woman smiled kindly at Dory who felt the shallow emptiness of her fake gesture, a pit of nausea forming in her stomach as she tried to process what was going on down here. Dorothy took the suit nonetheless, rubbing the package between her fingers nervously as they walked down a dimly lit corridor. 

_I can see my breath..._ Dorothy thought to herself, watching each cloud of condensation leave her mouth. 

A doctor began to guide them down the hall, chirping about how great the vault was. But all that was on Dorothy's mind was how much their lives had changed in the instant of a split second. Everything was gone. Total nuclear annihilation. What about college? What about her life? She was supposed to be a young adult, in the prime of her life. And now? She was just...a husk. Dorothy had been through a lot of shit, but nothing quite like this. 

She could make out Nora cooing to Shaun, telling him about their new 'home'. But they followed ahead blindly, like lambs being lead to slaughter as they stopped in front of a series of strange pods with comfortable seats nestled within each piece of machinery. 

"H-How long will we be down here?" Dorothy asked tentatively, her voice wavering as her eyes darted to each pod. 

"We'll be going over all of that in orientation," The doctor told her knowingly. "But first we have a few medical procedures to go through," 

At last, he stopped in front of three pods, and they were instructed to put on their vault suit and step into the pods. Nora let out a pitiful groan as Shaun began to cry bitterly, obviously not liking the change in atmosphere. Dory had changed into her vault suit next to her pod, and when she turned around she saw Nate was holding her baby brother in his arms, Nora comforting him by laying soft kisses on his small forehead. 

If nothing else, Nora was a caring mother who loved her baby more than life itself. 

"I got him, honey, you get changed," Nate told his wife who gave a reluctant nod and tore herself from her husband and baby to slip into the slim-fitting vault suit. Dorothy approached her dad and brother, tugging at the snug sleeves of the Vault 111 jumpsuit. She didn't quite like the way it clung to every curve of her slender figure but she didn't combat it. If it was necessary for protocol, she would follow it to make this go by faster. "Think you can help me calm him?" Nate asked his daughter as they both watched Shaun's small face draw with discomfort, small cries living his tiny mouth. 

Dory leaned over and ghosted a kiss across Shaun's tender cheek, offering her pinky to his free hand as she began to whisper the words she familiarized herself with every day since he was born. She knew them by heart, as silly as that might sound.

_"Goodnight room, goodnight moon, goodnight cow jumping over the moon..."_ Dorothy recited sweetly as she watched Shaun's fit begin to die down. She continued, rolling through the poem until the end as Shaun's eyes fluttered shut. _"Goodnight stars, goodnight air, goodnight noises everywhere."_

"He's out like a light," Nate chuckled as he offered Shaun to Dory as he quickly tugged the vault suit on. Dorothy loved the way baby Shaun felt in her arms like he was a warm beacon of comfort as she held this tiny little human against her body. With regret, she handed her baby brother back to her father who gave her a quick hug and a kiss on her forehead, telling her everything would be fine. Dory nodded and retreated to her pod as everyone entered their designated pods. 

Dorothy tried not to jump as the pod closed over her, her heart thumping wildly in her chest as she watched the doctor pacing outside of her pod. 

_"The pod will decontaminate and depressurize you before we head deeper in the vault. Just relax." _The doctor's voice was muffled as Dory watched him speak. 

** _"Resident Secure. Occupant Vitals: Normal."_ **

_Life is what you make it, huh, dad?_ She thought as she looked at her dad who held Shaun gingerly against his chest. He looked up just in time to make eye contact with Dorothy and he sent her a small smile with a reassuring wink. Dorothy relaxed ever so slightly. Maybe everything would be fine...

** _"Procedure complete. In 5...4...3...2..."_ **

_Just...fine..._


	2. Orange Colored Sky

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dorothy stumbles out of the Vault with her stepmother to find the man responsible for taking her little brother. But the world isn't as they remembered it...at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Song: Dream A Little Dream Of Me - Ella Fitzgerald

**Boston, Massachusetts **

**Vault 111**

**Circa October 2287**

_"This is the one..."_

_"Open it..."_

_"Is it over?"_

_"It's all right, I got you," _

_"Stop! I've got him!"_

_"Let the boy go...I'm only gonna' tell you once!"_

_"I'm not giving you Shaun!!!"_

With the sound of the smoking gun reverberating off the walls of the vault and echoing in Dorothy's mind, she suddenly stirred with a gasp. At that moment, Dorothy doubled over in a heaving sputtering mess trying to expel a horrendous, cold liquid from her lungs. Her forest green eyes burned with unshed tears, watering to cleanse the chemicals from her eyes. What had happened? This decontamination felt horrible...

Then the pod door opened with a hiss of steam and Dorothy hit the cold concrete ground in a clatter, pain blossoming in her knees and the heels of her hands. Her muscles felt so weak and shook violently as she tried to hold herself up. Dory's entire body began to shiver as the dank cold set into her damp Vault suit. She felt like she could never be warm again. Her body racked with another violent, coughing fit. 

Her ears picked up on the telltale sign of a feminine gasp. 

"D-Dorothy!" 

And then warm hands were around her, rolling her onto her knees. And _she was being hugged?_ Dorothy was too weak to push the woman off of her, but she could feel that she was crying. Dory's vision began to settle and she made out the familiar head of elegant, mahogany brown hair pressed against her cheek. _Thank God it wasn't that weird old doctor. I would hate to injure a man worth more than my student debt..._

"N-Nora," Dorothy croaked, her hands awkwardly finding her stepmother's back to pat her gently. "W-What's going on?" Her green eyes flickered to around the dark vault, seeing the other decontamination pods still hadn't opened, save for her own, Nora's and... "Dad," Dorothy untangled herself from Nora's arms as she shakily clambered to her feet to saunter over to her father's pod. 

"No, Dory, don't look!" Nora attempted to thrust herself in front of Dorothy who gazed at the pod, only seeing Nate's feet. Still. 

"Dad," Dorothy repeated as she maneuvered around Nora. "Dad!" She raised her voice as she finally stood before the pod. 

There her dad lay, slumped in the pod, unmoving. A stream of crimson blood leaking from a gunshot wound in his forehead, his eyes brown eyes open, but not seeing.

Dorothy couldn't stifle the horrified gasp as her hands flew to her mouth, and tried to muffle a gut-wrenching scream. Her body was shaking, disbelief clouding her already murky brain as images began to flash in her brain. 

A man, rugged and bald with a scar running down the left side of his face. People in white, hazmat suits. Her father shouting. The gunshot. Shaun crying...

_Shaun._

"Where is Shaun!" Reason caused the response from Dory as Nora's eyes glued to the floor. 

"They...They took him. They killed Nate and took my baby," Nora whispered her eyes growing misty. 

"We need to go, Nora," Dorothy told her regretfully as the hot tears leaked from her eyes, leaving cold trails down her flushed cheeks. "We have to find Shaun."

"I know," Nora sniffled as she walked over to Nate's body, her hands reaching inside the pod only to return with her husband's wedding band. Dory couldn't look anymore, a sob threatening to bubble past her lips. 

Dory clenched her small fists tightly, fighting down the anguished cries that racked her chest violently and began to walk down the rows of pods, noticing that none of them had opened. The residents were all dead. _Vault Tech did this? But why? _She asked internally as she tried not to look at the dead bodies through the frosted glass. Dory stood on the stairs, waiting for Nora who was slowly approaching her, eyes downcast as she tried not to look at _Nate's daughter_. 

Dory's green eyes settled on her father's open pod one last time as she bit her lower lip, _hard. _She refused to let any noise come out. She wouldn't show any more weakness. Weakness would have to die in the vault, with her father. 

_I'll find the people who did this to you. I won't let them get away with this..._

[][][][]

The light was blinding, God, it was painful! Dorothy and Nora both shielded their sweaty faces from the suns ruthless rays as the elevator ascended. Nora could hear Dorothy letting out a perturbed string of curses. The pair were both still breathing heavily from their fight with the radiated bugs in the vault, hearts still thundering like a pack of wild horses.

But when their vision settled and the screech of the elevator stopped...The two women had to bear witness to horrid remains of the post-apocalyptic USA. 

There were dead husks of what were once thriving trees that made a shady forest, and the ground was more ash and dust and weeds than actual grass. It felt like it had only been hours, but by the decay of the rusted metal and destroyed building site, it had been years. _Many _years. Dory let loose a breath she didn't realize she was holding. As she chanced a look at Nora, she saw the woman had a hand lay over her mouth in horror.

The cool fall air wrapped around them as they soaked in the wasteland, their _home. _

"I can't believe it," She heard Nora utter and Dory sighed, running a free hand through her long blonde hair. 

"If the roaches turning into the size of small dogs wasn't bad enough..." Dorothy grumbled as she set her pistol down and began to pile her hair up into a ponytail. "I'm gonna hate to see what the rest of this world looks like,"

"We need to head back to Sanctuary. Maybe there's somebody there that saw something," Nora told her as they stepped off the platform, guns in hand, and followed the barely recognizable path to Sanctuary Hills. 

"I'm going to need a drink after all of this," Dorothy grumbled and Nora cast her a sideways glance. 

"I'm confused as to how you can think about alcohol during all this," Nora muttered lowly, keeping her eyes on the prowl as she clutched a 10mm pistol tightly against her body. 

"I'm confused as to how you're not," Dorothy retorted and Nora fell silent as she realized she was waiting...waiting for Nate to speak up...

The two had never gotten along. Nate had always played the moderator. Without him, there was no filter, nobody to interject, nobody to _draw the line_. Nora discreetly began to wonder what that meant for the pair of survivors. Already, the tension was palpable. Dory knew they had to depend on each other for survival at this point, but that didn't mean she _liked _it. As a lawyer, Nora always had a way of making Dory feel like an utter ass. Dory wasn't an idiot, she was aware of Nora's dislike towards her. But she never understood why. 

The streets were littered with debris and the asphalt was in shambles. Save for a few collapsed houses, Sanctuary was exactly as Dorothy remembered it. Well, a bit wore down and broken with pieces of homes and roofs missing, but nonetheless, it was the same. 

_"Mum!?" _

"There's no fucking way," Dorothy crudely exclaimed as her eyes fell upon..._Codsworth!? _But that was impossible? Dorothy was sure the storming blast from the radiation would have taken Codsworth down in one fatal swoop. The Mister Handy flew over to the pair of women with haste as he blubbered over the two. The robot was an inconsolable wreck, and even Dory couldn't fight the twinge in her heart for Codsworth. 

"And Miss as well!? Oh!" A much-aggrieved Codsworth sputtered. "As I live and breathe..."

"Codsworth! You're still here!?" Dory spoke, abashed. 

"That means other people could still be alive, right?" Nora pressed the robot. 

"Well, _of course_ I'm still here!" Codsworth scoffed. "You don't think a little radiation could deter the pride of General Atomics International!"

_God, I have missed this robot..._ Dory sighed internally. 

"But you seem the worse for wear," Codsworth continued. "Best not to let the hubby see you in that state! Where is sir, by the way?"

Dory's heart plummeted like the nuclear bombs that fell... 

Nora faltered for a moment before she said, with great reluctance, "They...They killed him..."

"Mum...these things you are saying, these terrible things. I-I believe you need a distraction. Yes, a distraction, to calm this dire mood!" Codsworth suggested brightly, and Dory's eyes began to swivel around the remains of Sanctuary. "It's been ages since we've had a proper family activity. Checkers or perhaps charades. Shaun does love that game. Is the...Is the lad with you?" Codsworths sensors began to scan the two women with apparent worry. 

"Shaun's been kidnapped. But I'm going to find him," Nora said with affirmation, clenching her fists tightly. "I'm going to get my baby back."

"It's worse than I thought. You're in a hunger-induced paranoia. Not eating properly for 200 years will do that, I'm afraid," Codsworth chortled. 

Dorothy's head whipped back toward the robot so quickly she risked whiplash at the action. 

"T-Two hundred years?!" Dorothy stammered. 

"W-What?! Are you sure?" Nora gasped, just as horrified. 

"A bit over 210 actually, Mum, give or take to the earth rotation and some minor dings to the ole' chronometer," Codsworth calculated and the young, well, 230-year-old college student felt faint. "That means you're over two centuries late for dinner! Ha-ha-ha! Perhaps I can whip you up a snack? You must be famished!"

Dorothy staggered backward as Nora persisted in speaking to the robot. _200 years? Has it...has it really been that long?_ She scanned Sanctuary Hills, and suddenly the state of the ruined houses, destroyed streets and rusted cars began to make sense. It was the level of wear and tear you only saw over the years. And Sanctuary had looked to have seen many, _many _years. 

_I never got to finish college..._ She thought with disdain. _I suppose that means I don't have to pay my student loans now...but what about civilization? What about a goddamn bar?! Fuck! I need a drink!_

Codsworth didn't have any information, unfortunately. He helped Nora and Dorothy search the remains of Sanctuary Hills, only to come up empty-handed. Dory felt so helpless as she even went so far as to pick up a piece of cardboard in an abandoned home and look under it. As if her baby brother would be alive and sitting patiently under the garbage with a smile. Dorothy and Nora both felt hopeless as they turned to the battered Mister Handy with defeat evident on their faces. Of course, finding Shaun back at home safe and sound was a blind shot in the dark. 

They were sitting on the ruined couch in Nora and Nate's old home. The house had already been ransacked for food and clothing. Nora was fiddling with the Pip Boy on her arm, the holotape from her husband sitting on the couch next to her. Dorothy had taken the recliner, investigating her destroyed laptop with saddened eyes. She attempted to open the laptop but only managed to break the laptop into two, separate halves. The screen in one hand and keyboard in the other, Dorothy threw the pieces of scrap down with frustration. 

Nora slipped the holotape into the Pip Boy and pressed play, and Dorothy perked at the sound of a mic screech followed by her father's laughter. In the background she could hear Shaun's cooing. The nostalgia gripped the young girl by the short hairs, and with a glance at her stepmother, she could see it had done the same as tears threatened Nora's brown eyes. 

_"...Yay! Hi Honey, listen. I don't think Shaun and I need to tell you how great of a mother you are...but we're going to say it anyway!" _Nate's voice cheerfully laughed. Dorothy could feel her throat closing painfully and Nora gnashed her teeth to hold back the overwhelming emotion of hearing her deceased husband and kidnapped baby. _"You are kind, a loving...and funny! That's right. And patient. So patient. Patience of a Saint as your mother used to say. Look, with Shaun and Dory and us being at home together. It's been an amazing year. But even so, I know our best days are yet to come. There will be changes, things we will need to adjust to. I'll rejoin the civilian workforce. You'll shake the dust off your law degree. Dorothy will go back to med school. But everything we do, no matter how hard, we do it for our family. Thank you, for giving me the chance to be a part of your life, look how far it's taken us. I know you and Dorothy don't always get along, but I hope that will eventually change with time. I love you both so much and I hate to see the two of you at odds. Now say, 'bye-bye' Shaun. Can you say goodbye? Bye honey. We love you," _

Dorothy stood abruptly as she heard the dead hiss of the end of the holotape and stormed outside, tears burning into the forest green over her eyes. As stupid as it might have been Dory stopped outside in the street, withdrew her pistol and unloaded a clip into a nearby fallen tree as she gritted her teeth, trying to keep from screaming out in anguish. Shot after shot rang out through the empty neighborhood. Codsworth decided it was best if he left her to grieve in her own way, while with every lound bang from the pistol, Nora cringed, flinching harder and harder until she couldn't withhold the tortured sobs that began to rip themselves out of her. 

Nora cried without restraint, screaming into the red, mildewy couch cushions that reeked of mothballs, her fingernails tearing at the upholstery for some sensible purchase as if she were trying to claw her way out of this nightmare. All while the shadow of Nate stood outside, facing the Commonwealth with an untangible fury and a sense of revenge while simeultaneously pouring out her ammo into a splintering tree.

Dorothy couldn't _wait _to find the bastards responsible for killing her father kidnapping her brother. She would make them pay. _God,_ she would make them pay...

But, for now, she would just settle for wasting her ammunition in a tree trunk. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you guys bother to read these things, HOPEFULLY, this will be the last, emotionally gut-wrenching chapter for a while. I really want to expand more on Dorothy's personality and I feel like I've only barely been able to brush the surface these first two chapters. Prepare yourselves for the carnage of Dory's youth, full of sarcasm, quick wit, and terrible choices in the Commonwealth. 
> 
> If Nora can't keep up with her, I can think of one overly sarcastic Mercenary who can. 
> 
> Leave your thoughts below!~


	3. Minutemen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After heading scouting Concord, Dory and Nora discover a group of survivors holed up in an old museum.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Song: Valerie-Amy Winehouse

**The Commonwealth**

**Concord**

**October 2287**

Between Dorothy's burning desire for alcohol and vengeance and Nora's ever-constant irritation with her, tensions were beginning to reach a new high. Codsworth had advised them to try Concord, despite the underlying warning that the people there weren't exactly _friendly._ What they stumbled upon was an all-out war between half a dozen psychotic killers and one man on a balcony with a glowing red laser musket. 

When the blood-crazed raiders turned their sights on the two approaching vault dwellers, Nora had initially thought that talking it out might help as she began to shout that they weren't a threat. Dorothy muttered under her breath, _"Nora, your lawyer is showing..."_

But as the guns were pointed in their direction, Dory quickly understood the situation where Nora did not. 

As the first bullet skimmed between the two, Dorothy withdrew her pistol and spun on the Raider who was charging them with a battle cry, a pool cue raised high and-...

Nora let out a horrified gasp as Dorothy planted a bullet right between his eyes. 

"It's us or them, Nora," Dorothy told her through gritted teeth as the raider's body hit the ground with a thud. More bullets began to skim by their faces and the crouched for cover. Nora seemed to digest this _with great regret and_ leaned around the side of a ruined car to return fire. Dory had always thought she would have felt more grief overtaking a human life, but something told her those people barely had any humanity. 

It was one thing that they had stopped to help the small group trapped in the old museum by picking off the raiders by using a suit of power armor and a minigun, _it was an entirely separate issue _when a giant, dinosaur looking _thing _broke out of the sewer below with a bellowing roar and began to take out the remaining raiders with its long claws, ripping them apart in a bloody, gory mess with its razor-sharp teeth. And it didn't look happy...Holy shit, it didn't look happy...

"Preston, what in the _fuck _is that!" Dorothy screamed up at the Minutemen who had seemed to pale at the sight of the beast. 

"Dorothy, get inside! You don't have any armor!" The Minuteman had exclaimed at her as Dorothy lowered her newly acquired shotgun. Well, she definitely didn't need to be told that twice. "It's a Deathclaw, it will kill a man in seconds!"

"What about Nora?!" Dorothy shouted back up and saw Preston's eyes widen considerably, his jaw-dropping as he gasped for words. 

"N-No! What-Nora! Stop!" Preston sputtered and immediately Dorothy spun around to see Nora charging at the Deathclaw, minigun in hand, unleashing hell into the green hide of the towering, horned monster. 

Dorothy could have shit a brick. 

_"Dorothy what the hell are you doing!?"_ She could hear Preston hollering. Huh? What was she doing? 

Dorothy hadn't immediately noticed that her feet began to move on their own until she was breaking into a full sprint down the road, leaping over the carnage of bloodied bodies full of lead as she raced toward Nora who was unleashing hell into the pissed off lizard. If the Deathclaw was mad before, it was _raging _now, bounding towards the small woman in power armor like it was escaping out of the gates of hell. Between the Deathclaw's ravenous roars that shook the earth and heavens, the constant thumping of the minigun spitting bullets, and Preston's distant shouting, Dorothy managed to let out a thundering scream that Nora somehow heard through the thick power armor. 

"NORA, GET DOWN!!!" 

Nora looked backward, never halting the spray of bullets as she back peddled from the creature that was leaping towards her in quick strides, to see Dorothy running towards her, the bright blue and yellow Vault Suit acting like a beacon of light in the darkness. But it did nothing to distract from the grenade in Dory's hand. Nora's eyes widened and immediately leaped behind a destroyed car as Dorothy launched the fragmentation grenade at the Deathclaw who was advancing quickly on Nora until there was a massive explosion...

Nora waited with bated breath when there was a loud thump to her left...and suddenly she was staring into the face of the Deathclaw. 

Dorothy doubled over in fits of laughter as she watched Nora punch the ugly, severed head away from her while simeultaneously letting out a shrill scream. That went way better than expected. _Holy shit, _way better! 

"N-Nora!" Dory wheezed. "It's d-dead! Oh my god!" The young woman fell over with hysterics as Nora shakily pulled herself to her feet. She wouldn't admit it, but Nora was grateful for the assist, albeit Dorothy handled it with less _grace _than Nora would have preferred, but grateful nonetheless. 

[][][][]

Where they had taken one step forward in their relationship, they had taken an immediate two steps back. Dory had been chuckling with Sturges about throwing explosives and her strong arm technique when she overheard Nora agree to escort the Minutemen to Sanctuary. Politely, she excused herself from her conversation with Sturges and turned a confused, pointed glare on Nora. 

"What about Shaun?" Dorothy demanded and Nora sighed looking at her with tired eyes. She had exited her power armor upon entering the museum again, unconvinced that she _wouldn't _fall through the old, rotten floorboards in the cantankerous armor. 

"Dorothy, these people need our help-,"

"_Shaun_ needs our help," Dorothy interrupted her. "He should be our first priority,"

"We can't just leave these people here," Nora argued and Dory cocked her head to the side as she folded her arms across her chest. 

"But we can leave Shaun where he's at? Oh wait, that's right, we don't know where he's at!" Dory hissed at Nora, her anger flaring deeply. How could Nora just disregard her own _baby_ like that! 

"Dorothy. It's dark. We don't know what's out there. We're no good tripping over ourselves in the dark chasing shadows," Nora spoke more firmly, crossing her arms over her chest as well as she glared back at the young woman. "We know what's in Sanctuary. So it couldn't hurt to help them get settled and start again tomorrow."

"I am _not _believing this," Dory scoffed as she spun on her heel, stomping out of the Old Museum. 

Their return to Sanctuary was long and tense, full of earsplitting silence aside from Jun Long’s sniffling and the scuff of their footfalls, especially Nora’s heavily armored steps as they shook the concrete. If Nora had been right about one thing, it was _definitely_ dark. Dorothy was not used to abysmal darkness in the streets where the streetlamps had offered some amount of solace before. Many times, she found herself tripping over the cracked asphalt, stubbing her toes or ‘accidentally’ stepping on the backs of Nora’s heels.

Okay, so it wasn’t an accident after the first two times.

As the _Red Rocket Truck Stop _came into view, Dorothy was nearly taken out by Preston’s arms as it swung out like the stop signs on an old, prewar school bus. Garvey’s eyes darted side to side skeptically and Nora withdrew the Pipe Rifle she had taken off the body of one of the raiders.

“Get your light, Nora!” Preston had hissed quietly to Nora who turned off the T-45 helmet’s headlamp.

Then Dorothy could hear it… the pitter-patter of feet on the asphalt. They began to quicken with every second until she could hear the creature running at a full sprint. Dorothy withdrew the 10mm Pistol, her palms growing sweaty as she struggled to hold the grip without it sliding out of her increasingly wet hands.

What creature were they about to fight off now? Dorothy had already seen the worst, she’d thought. Mutated cockroaches, radiated mole rats, huge mosquitos, _a fucking Deathclaw _what else could this wasteland throw at her?

Dorothy wasn’t expecting to hear the most heart-melting, excited bark.

_“**Puppy!**”_ Dorothy screamed with joy as she leaped past Preston’s cautioning arm. Preston nearly had a stroke as he tried to grab her, Nora as well, but she was slippery. Dorothy was meeting the approaching dog with the barreling speeding of a football linebacker.

They couldn’t see, only hear the giggles of delight and playful yips. Nora struggled to turn her headlamp back on, shedding light on the scene that unfolded before them. Dorothy was on her back, a tall German Shepherd standing over her as it showered the young girl with loving kisses and gave pitiful wines. Dorothy scratched his dark brown fur, struggling to push his black-masked face away from her own as she laughed jubilantly.

“Oh my god! Can we keep him, Nora!? Please, please, please!”

Preston was in absolute awe. Was this the same girl who had raced toward a Deathclaw with zero armor donned, only hours previous? Nora was merely stunned to see the near 21-year-old sassy woman had been reduced to a 6-year-old child by a dog.

“I-I don’t know. He might have an owner,” Nora hesitantly told Dorothy who giving the dog loving kisses on his cheek. But she didn’t miss the way the dog’s hip bones jutted outward against his thin skin, how she could nearly count every rib in his body…if he did have an owner, they certainly weren’t taking care of him.

“Dogmeat is what you’d call his own man,” Mama Murphy spoke up as she stepped forward. The dog tilted his head at the frail old woman and Dorothy looked up at her with utter confusion painted across her face.

“You know this dog?” Nora asked in confusion, ignoring the condescending scoff from Marcy Long, grumbling about what a crazy old coot Mama Murphy was. The old woman offered a shaky hand to the dog he gave her an acknowledging lick.

“You can’t own a free spirit like this. But he chooses his friends, and sticks with ‘em,” Mama Murphy let gaze fall upon Dorothy on the ground, staring into her green eyes as if she were picking apart her very existence. “He’ll stay by you now. I saw it.”

Dorothy rubbed Dogmeat’s chest, looking to Nora for confirmation. Nora gave an exaggerated sigh before speaking.

“We’ve got some Salisbury Steak somewhere-,”

She didn’t get a word out edgewise after that as Dorothy screamed excitedly and tackled the canine in a hug who, in turn, barked happily, tongue lolling out the side of his mouth.

[][][][]

Codsworth had had an initial fit over the two dirty, bruised women when they first crossed the old, broken bridge that lead into Sanctuary. He quickly adjusted his attitude, however, as he greeted the small group that lingered behind them. Preston Garvey had given the trio a quizzical look to which Nora motioned they would speak later. The Minutemen began unraveling sleeping bags in one of the abandoned houses, settling in for the night so they could get a head start on working in the morning.

Nora had just deposited her power armor at the workshop across the street, careful to avoid tripping over the tire walls that cluttered the shop area of the small yellow house. _Good to know the radiation hasn’t affected the weather…_ Nora thought to herself as she shivered within her vault suit. The late fall wind seemed to seem into her skin like a cold sheet wrapping around her body. Her body pebbled with gooseflesh as she quickly skittered across the street. She returned to the old, powder blue abode that she once shared with her family and stopped in the doorway, soaking it all in.

There were candles lit across the house, casting moving shadows as the flames danced delicately on the burning wicks. Codsworth was tidying up the kitchen as best as he could and Dogmeat lay in the floor beside the couch, where Dorothy was stretched out reading a dingy copy of _Grognak the Barbarian._

It was like an awkward puzzle had been fitted together, with many pieces still missing. Her home was run down, a husk of a memory when things were bright and beautiful, not charcoal and radiation, her damaged robot: an example of how strong will had helped him survive all these years. Even Dogmeat, a glimpse into the past at the cute dog she and her husband had adopted before Shaun was born but ran away when some careless kid left their gate open.

And as her eyes fell upon Dorothy, her heart stung painfully in her chest.

She may not have initially looked like Nate, with platinum blonde hair and grassy green eyes, but be damned if there weren’t certain quirks that she did that made Nora feel like she was staring at the shadow of her late husband.

The way Dorothy’s eyebrows knitted together as she concentrated of the comic reminded Nora of the way she’d catch Nate reading the newspaper, laughing as she’d tell him to relax or he’d get _more _wrinkles. He’d usually swat Nora’s ass with the newspaper from those type of comments.

The way Dorothy’s nose would scrunch in disgust or distaste was the exact same way Nate’s would when he would change Shaun’s diapers, normally gagging and retching like a drama queen while Shaun would giggle at his silly daddy.

And especially the way Dorothy would laugh. Nora hated it. She hated Dory’s laugh with a passion so fiery it had to have come from the pits of hell. She hated the way her cheeks would dimple, just on one side. She hated the way her chin would wrinkle. She hated the uneven grin that would stretch over her pearly teeth, displaying that one canine was sharper than the other. And she hated Dory’s loud, obnoxious laugh that seemed to be more wheezing and screeching like a startled chicken.

Because even though she may have looked like her mother, Dorothy looked like her father and _sounded _like him to. There were times when Nora loved to hear Nate’s laughter, but as she heard him laugh through Dorothy, _she hated it. _She was a constant reminder that Dorothy was alive, and Nate was not. And these little quirks were things that sent Nora over the edge.

When Nora had first met Dorothy, she didn’t like her simply because she was baggage from a life that Nate had left behind. But now it was so much more. And it was beyond unfair.

Nora didn’t bother opening her mouth to speak, it’s not as if Dorothy would have cared if she had anything to say. And it’s not like Nora actually wanted to talk to the irritating young woman either. Nora didn’t need Dorothy’s confirmation for what she did. So, she spun on her heel and walked out of the house to go and speak to Preston and confirm that the group was settled in at last.

Dorothy looked up as she heard the door slam and she narrowed her eyes at the disturbance. Dogmeat gave a tired huff and groaned as he rolled onto his side. Dorothy let a hand fall off the couch and onto his stomach as she scratched him gingerly.

“Miss,” Codsworth spoke as he approached her.

“What’s up, Codsworth?” Dorothy asked, green eyes flickering up to gaze upon the battered Mister Handy. He seemed to struggle for words for a moment before he spoke.

“You…You don’t suppose you’re being too hard on mum, do you?”

Dorothy grunted as she sat upright. _Fuck, it’s cold…_ Dorothy noted as she could feel the cold slipping through the cracks and holes in the house. She set the comic book down next to her on the couch as she gave Codsworth her attention, wanting to assure the robot that this was nothing to be concerned over.

“Try not to worry about it, Codsworth. These have been issues we’ve been dealing with for a long time now.”

“I-I just know sir would hate to see the two of you like this,” He told her and Dorothy offered him a tight-lipped smile.

“There is something you need to know. Dad had a habit of brushing things under the rug until he couldn’t ignore the mess anymore,” She stared intently at the flickering candle on the coffee table as she fumbled with her fingers. “Codsworth, the mess has always been there. He’s just not here to hide it anymore.”

Codsworth seemed to visibly deflate at the statement. He couldn’t dispute it. He had only been in the care of the family for a little over a month and he quickly caught on to the thick tension in the air the second he was activated. His sensors picked up on a slight shiver from the mistress and he lurched at the opportunity to change the subject.

“Are you cold, Miss Dorothy?”

“A bit,” She rubbed her arms slightly to summon some warmth from the friction.

“The blankets aren’t quite in the same shape they were before, but I would be delighted to fetch you one!” Codsworth told her with newfound delight and Dory nodded, a softer smile painting its way over her face.

“I’d like that very much, Codsworth, thank you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I lied. Here's more emotional turmoil for your day. I hope this sheds more light on why Nora dislikes Dorothy. It's only getting worse from here. Next chapter we finally meet the mouthy merc.


	4. Goodneighbor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a few wrong turns, bad directions from the Pip Boy and running from giant green super mutants, Dorothy and Nora hunker down in Goodneighbor for the night. Only to meet the unlikeliest of people...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Song: At Last-Etta James

**The Commonwealth**

**Boston Ruins**

**October 2287**

_"General of the **Minutemen!?**_ _" _

Nora could not deny that she relished the way Dory screamed shrilly with horror, pausing in her steps as she seemed to dissect her life up to this point. They were in route to 'The Great Green Jewel' of the Commonwealth, which the two had deduced meant _Fenway Park._ The entire trek to the Boston ruins had been made in comfortable silence, despite gunning down a group of feral ghouls and disgusting Bloat Flies, until Nora had decided to shatter it with her startling revelation. 

"Nora," Dorothy leaned on one hip as she finally set her eyes on the older woman with disbelief. "You have absolutely no experience leading a militia."

"And you do?" Nora quipped back, raising a brow at her. Dorothy wanted to knock the smug smile off her face. 

"Of course not. And that's where I, obviously, draw the line!" Dorothy told her, trying to understand _in what feasible realm_ Nora thought she could honestly lead a fucking military. It seemed absolutely absurd. 

"If you're that hurt over it, you can file a complaint when we get back to Sanctuary," Nora brushed Dorothy off as she continued navigating through the ruins, leaving an irritation festering in Dorothy as she continued to follow her footsteps. "I'm sure Preston will have a job for you."

"Yeah, because I want that _cinnamon roll_ to dump settlements on _my _head, too."

"He is a cinnamon roll isn't he," Nora scrunched her nose up, smiling faintly as she thought about it. "You never know, maybe he'll make you my appointed Colonel."

"Oh because _that _sounds absolutely thrilling," Dorothy rolled her eyes as she kicked a rusty can across the shambled road. "Watch out _Commonwealth_, here comes the General of the Minutemen with her _trusty sidekick, Colonel Dorothy. _Stay tuned for the Tin Man, Scarecrow and Cowardly Lion."

Nora had to bite down on her lip painfully to avoid laughing. The two had a toxic, sadistic relationship. They got off on hurting each other's feelings, seeing the one get a rise out of the other, but when it came to gunfights and dangerous creatures of the wastes; The two could be trusted to have each other's backs. They had spent nearly three days in the Wasteland and had already settled into an offense/defense plan. Nora points, Dorothy shoots. It was fairly simple. Nora had a great sense of perception when it came to detecting enemies and finding supplies. 

Dorothy just had rotten, dumb luck is all Nora could chalk it up to. 

But albeit rotten and dumb, it kept them alive. Such as throwing the grenade at the Deathclaw without having any previous experience in Baseball, blowing up a car (by complete accident) wasting a bunch of Raiders, even _stepping on a fucking frag mine and _not _detonating it. _ Including, but not limited to, firing any weapon she picked up without any prior experience with _great _success. Dorothy continued to prove time and time again how lucky of a girl she was. Most recently? Nora salvaged a laser rifle off the body of a dead raider, courtesy of the flaming car, and found that it was damaged by the blast before handing it off to Dory, who consequently, pulled the trigger and sent a red laser bouncing off the concrete. 

Nora supposed it was also dumb luck that she managed to be traveling the formidable wastelands with a pre-med student, who was no stranger to medicine, injuries, and bodily trauma. 

What it all boiled down to was beginning to become clear to the two: Although they despised each other with every fiber of their being, aimed below the belt with insults and quipping remarks, they ultimately trusted each other. They were alone in the wastes, with nobody but each other, and although the companionship wasn't _covetable _to either of them, it was comfortable.

"I think we turn down this street," Nora spoke pointing at a cluttered alley. Dorothy blinked slowly before doing a full 360 and sent Nora an accusatory stare. 

"We're lost aren't we?"

"No," Nora had answered almost too quickly. 

"Nora...that's the old Boston Bugle building," Dorothy exclaimed with exasperation as she thrust her hand toward a tall, rundown office building. 

"Okay, so we got a little turned around!" Nora said defensively.

"This is a far cry from 'turned around,' Nora!" Dorothy groaned, thumping her laser rifle against her head with grief. "Pre-war, it would take about two hours of walking to get from here to Fenway Park. Now? There's no telling what roadblocks we're going to run into! And look, it's sunset!" 

Nora grimaced, not willing to admit Dorothy was right. The sun was indeed sinking behind the old, crumbling buildings in the ruins, living chilling shadows to reach over the two eerily. The air itself began to grow colder. The ruthless, frigid night would be on them soon if they didn't move quickly. This wasn't the city they remembered and they didn't need to be out in the open when the sun was gone. 

"What does your Pip Boy say," Dorothy asked her flatly. She noticed Nora went rigid and cautiously picked up her hand to view the map, flinching as her brown eyes settled on the screen. "I'll be damned, _you haven't even been using it!!!!"_

"I thought I knew the Boston area just fine!" Nora huffed and Dorothy began pulling at her blonde hair in rage. 

"Nora!" She groaned. 

[][][][]

Mayor Hancock was moseying through Goodneighbor, letting the after-effects of his jet high take him on the easy stroll through the town of miscreants and misfits. His battered and faded tricorn hat was tilted downward ever so slightly, hands stuffed in the pockets of his trousers as he stopped in the dark alley, the familiar outline metal armor had him gazing to see his ginger-haired bodyguard, Fahrenheit. 

A cunning smile laced its way across his burned and withered face as he approached the strong woman who towered over him by at least two heads. 

"Boss," She greeted, the small smile tracing over her lips. 

"Nice to see you back from the Freight Depot," Hancock said as he stopped before her. She was leaning on the wall and she crossed her long arms over her chest. 

"Everything in the strongroom is still in order," She told him. 

They had caught wind that some unknown scavvers had been lurking around the Goodneighbor strongroom a little too much lately. Although nobody was there and everything was accounted for, the mayor had a good whiff of who was nosing around his goods...

"Good to hear," He told her as he withdrew a pack of cigarettes and lit one, stuffing the battered package back into his pocket. 

Fahrenheit seemed to perk, glancing over her shoulder as the gate to Goodneighbor creaked over. 

"Fresh meat," She spoke quietly to the Mayor who raised a brow in subtle question. "Looks like Finn is getting ready to sink his claws into them. You want or should I...?"

"I'll handle it," Hancock sighed as he maneuvered around his bodyguard to lay his sights on the newcomers. "Finn will never fucking learn-,"

Hancock stopped mid-speech as he finally saw the visitors. His cigarette dangled from his mouth like a loose string as his widened _considerably._ They were women, donned in blue and yellow vault suits that hugged their bodies immaculately. The woman with elegant brown hair appeared to be older, with thicker hips and a round rack on her. He noticed her vault suit was splatter with blood and it was even matted in her dark brown hair. The young, tight blonde next to her seemed a little worse for wear. Her vault suit was ripped at the knees and crimson-stained her jumpsuit and face. Although they both looked to have been dragged through the gutter, bruised and dirty, he couldn't help but notice that they had the smoothest set of skin he had ever seen. 

They didn't look like they were from around these parts, or, hell, even this _era._ They just didn't make women like _that _anymore. 

_"Hey, hold up,"_

The voice caught the two women off guard for a moment after they entered the town, filled with neon lights and grungy businesses. Nora had already stated she didn't like the looks of Goodneighbor before they opened the gate. Dorothy told her if she wanted to sleep in the super mutant camp outside she was more than welcome to, but she would be having a goddamn drink tonight even if it killed her. 

Dorothy didn't miss the way the creep's eyes slid up and down her figure like a slow-moving elevator, making stops along the way to her face. He was a brute, an ugly, bald, scraggly brute wearing road leathers. And she? To Finn, she was a small and slender specimen that wasteland dragged in from the cold and placed on his lap. She was tired and too weak to fight back. Or so he thought...

"First time in Goodneighbor? Can't go walking around without insurance," He spoke as he lit a cigarette, a slight shiver of pleasure raced down his spine at the thought of having her alone. Well, as long as her older companion didn't make a fuss. 

"What?" Nora blinked as she stared at Finn with disbelief and overwhelming annoyance. This rat bastard was standing between her and a decent bed for the night and he to shake them down for their money?

"Is...Is this guy serious?" Dorothy said, the hand she had on the grip of her laser rifle tightened reflexively. She felt revulsion shoot through her body like a disease as she noticed the way his eyes stared at her body with a hunger any girl in her right mind would recognize. 

“Now, don’t be like that,” He simpered to the two women. “Pretty women like you shouldn’t be waltzing around without protection. I think you’ll like what I have to offer,”

"Something tells me I'm not," Dorothy forced out through gritted teeth, hugging the laser rifle tighter against her body. 

Now, normally in these types of situations, Nora would see it fit to calm the girl down and tell her to walk it off. They were in a new town and they didn't need to make a bad impression on the locals. Especially since many of them were eyeing the scene with curiosity. But if there was one thing Nora was completely intolerant of, it was sexual harassment. Those were primarily her caseloads when she was a lawyer, and even as a budding law student, Nora had the burning desire to fight for women and men whose consent, trust, and sense of security had been ripped away from them buy disgusting cretins. Something told Nora that time didn't quite take the toll it should have on ths wild wasteland. 

“You hand over everything you got int them pockets, or ‘accidents’ start happening to ya’. Big, bloody, accidents. ‘Course, you mind the wager, and I might can_ protect_ you from those accidents.”

That was it. 

Nora's eyes narrowed on the spineless bastard that stood before them, grinning haughtily at the two with an arrogance so malignant it caused nausea to twist in Nora's gut and Dorothy's hair to stand on end. 

“Dorothy?” Nora spoke calmly, almost _too _calm. 

“Yeah, Nora?” Dorothy replied lightly, not tearing her eyes off the slimy sleaze in front of her. 

“Waste this fuck.”

“With pleasure.”

Finn, who was watching the two women with doubt gave a disbelieving scoff when he suddenly went wide-eyed as the younger woman aimed her laser rifle at him. The cigarette he was smoking fell out of his mouth as he stared down the black barrel of the weapon for barely a second before a blast of red light lit up his world like the Fourth of July and his body crumpled to the ground in a heap.

"Okay, when do we start running?" Dorothy plainly asked, eyes darting toward the junk door a few feet behind them. What she wasn't expecting was to hear was delighted, gravelly laughter from an approaching figure. Nora motioned at her to lower her weapon which she did reluctantly. 

_Whoa-ho-ho! I like you already!”_ A gravelly voice exclaimed with a harsh laugh. _“Walk into a new place, make a show of dominance! Nice…”_

Dorothy could make out an _old_ colonial tricorn hat, battered beaten over the centuries, and the man wearing it? He tilted his hat up, revealing a devilish grin that damn near stretched from ear to ear. It should only fit that where personality and smiles were the first things Dory thought, appearances were on the forefront of Nora's mind as she reached for me laser musket instinctively upon seeing the shriveled, radiation burned skin and empty nasal cavity. Under the threadbare, red leather frock coat was a blue formal jacket, covered with frills, and archaic style buttons. Worn leather trousers bedecked his legs and a tattered, American flag adorned his waist like a sash.

"Heh, take it easy sister, you ain't ever seen a _ghoul _before?" He laughed sardonically to Nora and Dorthy grimaced, her shoulder losing their inital tension. 

"We've seen plenty. Well, the ones that rip you limb from limb when they see you," 

"Ah, you're talking about my distant cousins, the _feral _ghouls," He joked lightly. "Goodneighbor's got a good following of ghouls around here, so lay low with the trigger fingers, you feel me?"

"Yeah, I feel you," Nora breathed, hand finally retreating from her musket.

"Goodneighbor is of the people, for the people. You stay cool and you’ll be part of the neighborhood," Hancock flashed them another thousand-watt grin as he leaned his body weight onto one leg. Dorothy gave a long internal groan. _I didn't realize I'd be getting a fucking watered down history lesson. Are we traveling back in time or forward?_

"Who...are you?" Nora finally asked as Dorothy holstered her laser rifle on her back. 

“Mayor Hancock. I’m in charge of this little town,” He answered, letting his dark eyes drift over the two women. _Sheesh, _he hadn’t seen women that looked that good in-well-ever. “Now I know old Finn gave you some trouble, but don’t go killing everyone that looks at you sideways around here.”

“Got it, sorry about that, Mayor,” Nora smiled apologetically and nodded. Hancock let out a low chuckle that rumbled his thin chest.

“Nah, just call me Hancock. So, what brings you to Goodneighbor, ladies?" 

Nora made the mistake of looking to Dorothy for an answer. Dorothy responded with a smile so sweet and innocent it bubble irritation in the very depths of her soul. Nora wasn't one to admit when she was wrong. And times like these? Her hand was being forced. She felt like Dorothy was using that sweet little smile to twist Nora's arm further up her back until she cried for uncle. In this case, she confessed her shortcomings to Hancock who saw nothing wrong with the malfunction they experienced in the ruins. But everyone knows the saying 'there is no such thing as a wrong woman.' Nora held tightly to that. 

“We got a little turned around in the ruins, so we’re just stopping in for the night."

Dorothy could have doubled over laughing her ass off. It took every ounce of free will Dory possessed to scrounge up her remaining free will and not blatantly laugh at her 'stepmother.'

“Shit like that happens more often than you think around these parts," Hancock laughed lightly. "You two got names? So I know to look out for my two new favorite troublemakers?"

_Oh boy, here we go..._ Dorothy thought lamely as she saw Nora stand a little taller and lift her chin up. 

"Nora. General of the Minutemen."

That made the Mayor do a double-take.

"The Minutemen, eh? I thought those guys had been blown off the map..." He muttered the last part before letting his eyes fall on the leggy blonde. "...and what are you? Her faithful second-in-command?"

Dorothy could have _died. _Not just from Hancock's words, however humiliating they might have been, but from the cocky smirk that threatened Nora's lips, the jolt in her body as she struggled to stifle a condescending laugh. Hancock decided, judging by the horror-struck expression on the blonde's face, it may not have been his best choice of words. Dorothy felt like a fish out water, her eyes wide with mind-shattering disbelief, her mouth gaping to make some semblance of words. 

At last, she recollected herself with several blinks, a clenched jaw and said,

"If you're implying I'm her sidekick, I can give you a good side-kick-in-the-ass, Mayor,"

"Heh-heh! Take it easy, sister!" Hancock cackled, hands flying up to caution the girl down before he offered her yet another signature, charismatic smile. 

"The names Dorothy. Call me Dory if you want," She introduced herself and then grimaced. "Mayor, what the hell does a girl gotta' do around here to get a stiff drink?"

_Well, I have a couple of ideas..._ He thought to himself as he discreetly eyed up the lithe, blonde dame. 

"Go to the Third Rail. Follow the alley, turn left, it’s on your left down the stairs in the old subway station. Tell Whitechapel Charlie Hancock sent you, he should hook you up.” Hancock told the young vaultie who grinned exuberantly as she fist-pumped the air in success.

“Finally! Thanks, Hancock,”

"Hotel Rexford has rooms available if you need a roof over your head. Now, try not to get yourselves into any more trouble while you’re here,” Hancock offered them a brief, endearing wink and turned his heel, walking back toward the State House to huff another canister of jet until he blacked out on his couch. 

[][][][]

Robert Joseph MacCready was nursing his fourth beer in the VIP section of the Third Rail. 

His leggy form was strewn across the tattered, red couch tiredly, glass bottle swinging in one hand, gazing at the wooden toy soldier in the other. Another day down, another sun sinking down on the horizon...another 24 hours his darling son had gone without a cure. RJ grimaced, taking another swig of his beer as he pocketed the toy soldier. A new client was supposed to meet him here at 3 p.m. But it was pushing 10 p.m. now. No doubt, the customer had been run off by those mouth breathers, Winlock and Barnes. 

Magnolia was on stage, dressed in her classic, sexy red number and she sent the merc a fleeting wink as she began her next song. The edges on his mouth quirked ever so slightly before he averted his stare down to the bottle in his hand. Mac knew he was a hit with the ladies. He wasn't sure why specifically, but he knew he had the looks where they counted, and the ever so polite personality when it mattered. 

He would swing by Daisy's in the morning to send a new shipment of caps off to Duncan. Anything that could help. Despite the tense history, RJ's old friend Angela was taking care of Duncan while he was in the Commonwealth. He knew Angela always held a soft spot for him. And his son? She couldn't say no. 

MaCready was only 22, barely an adult as he entered the Commonwealth to make a name for himself to save his son. 

He looked up as he felt two shadows looming over him. 

"What do you two mouth breathers want?" MacCready sneered as he looked up at the two armored Gunners, Winlock and Barnes. Mac refused to even stand as he spoke, an unspoken disrespect as he glared at the two Gunners. 

"MacCready," Winlock chuckled, his eyes falling upon each shabby detail in the room with disgust before landing on the lone merc. "Can't say I'm surprised to find you in a dump like this."

"I was wondering how long it would take your bloodhounds to track me down, Winlock," MacCready responded with less enthusiasm, his sharp sniper eyes watching the two with apprehension as his jaw locked. He wouldn't buckle. No, he had been through far too much and come this far just to be done in by these two knuckle draggers. So Mac stood up, all five feet ten inches and glowered at the pair. "Should we take this outside?"

He would take the fight to them. If he challenged them and they were stupid enough to accept, Hancock would rain hell upon them. It would finally get them off his back.

"It ain't like that. I'm just here to deliver a message," Winlock responded, his eyes flashing at the challenge RJ offered. MacCready knew Winlock wanted to deal the mouthy merc his own set of licks...but now wasn't the time. 

"In case you forgot, I left the Gunners for good," Robert angrily snarled at the two who visibly tensed, exercising physical restraint from throttling the mouthy man. 

"Yeah, I heard," Winlock nodded in mock understand as he walked closer to Mac who's heart sped in his chest at the bold move. But RJ couldn't deny the relief when he saw the Gunner had stolen one of the cold beers Mac had bought a few moments earlier. Winlock cracked the bottle open and took a swig, his eyes never once leaving the fuming mercenary who watched the thieving bastard steal his beer. "But you're still taking jobs in the Commonwealth. That isn't going to work for us."

"I don't take orders from you... not anymore. So why don't you take your girlfriend and walk out of here while you still can," Mac warned them, deciding to reduce himself to insult to emit a rise from the two. 

It worked on Barnes, who's brows shot upward in disbelief and he spun to look at Winlock in utter doubt. 

"What?! Winlock, tell me we don't have to listen to this shit..." Barnes all but groaned, causing Mac to enjoy a temporary amount of victory for getting under his skin. 

But Winlock's eyes sharpened on the merc. He knew RJ. He knew the game he played, the way his clever little mind twisted and manipulated people. Winlock wouldn't be so easy. 

"Listen up MacCready," Winlock spoke firmly, taking a swig of beer and spitting in the floor before he continued. "The only reason we haven't filled your body full of bullets is that we don't want a war with Goodneighbor. See, we respect other people's boundaries... we know how to play the game. It's something you never learned."

"Glad to have disappointed you," Mac smiled sardonically as he lifted his own beer to his lips. Winlock couldn't fight down the visible rise Mac stirred from him. 

"You can play the tough guy all you want. But if we hear you're still operating inside Gunner territory, all bets are off. You got that?" Winlock warned RJ who just stared down the two before shrugging. 

"You finished?" Mac asked and Barnes clenched his fists, eased by a hand on his shoulder from Winlock who gave the merc one last fleeting stare. 

"Yeah, we're finished. Let's get out of here, Barnes," Winlock told his companion as they turned on their heels. 

_The fucking nerve of those two..._MacCready thought with blistering anger and disdain. His soft, baby blue eyes fell upon the circle of condensation left by the ghost of his second beer that had been stolen by the numbskull gunner. All those caps. Wasted. RJ found himself pondering if he could have done things differently when a surprising voice tore him out of his stupor. 

_"Keep fucking walking, I'm not interested,"_ A smoky feminine voice spoke lightly and MacCready's head snapped up only for his sweet blue eyes to all but pop out of his head. 

There, stood a beautiful woman in a tight blue and yellow vault suit, the fabric hugging every voluptuous curve of her slender, lithe body. She looked like a model from one of those pre-war pinups he used to keep. She looked so dainty and soft, and Mac's eyes couldn't help but wander downwards. She had the curves where they counted, and her waist was cinched at the middle like an hourglass, completed with mile-long legs. 

And she was holding a fucking gun on Barnes...

Mac grinned at the sight, his heart soaring as the gorgeous dame warned him off with the cock of the lever being pulled back. 

The two brutes quickly backpedaled from her and she finally turned to offer MacCready a warm smile. And that was when he saw her eyes. Her eyes were akin to something pre-war. He imagined the shade of green in her eyes were what forests were made of before they were leveled to dust and charred stumps. He knew one thing was certain, they definitely didn't make girls like that anymore. 

And the first thing out of those pretty pink lips of hers...

"Those two morons giving you trouble?" 

And suddenly, RJ felt like _he _was the damsel in distress. The tips of his ears burned hot and Mac mentally scoured his brain for some sort of a cop-out, a defensive mechanism that would make himself look much more formidable and much less like a victim. So, he settled with what he knew best, and he spoke out of reflex...

"Look, lady," He tipped his chin at her as he took his seat, baby blue eyes narrowing on the beautiful girl in the vault suit. "If you're preaching about Atom or looking for a _friend, _you've got the wrong guy," The blondie blinked in surprise, visibly attempting to stifle an amused smirk. 

"Oh, please, don't mind me. Just passing through. Couldn't help but notice you were being haggled down."

"Haggled?" MacCready scoffed, grabbing his remaining beer to take a swig as he manspread. "Believe me, I had it under control, sweets."

"Dorothy," The blonde introduced herself, offering RJ a polite hand. MaCready stared at her for a moment, and that small little hand poked in his direction before he finally set his beer down and took her small, warm hand in his. _Fuck...she's soft..._

"RJ MacCready."

"Well, Mister _RJ, _I was cooking up a real good speech about the Atomn, but since you shot it down maybe you can help me with something else?" She offered with a laugh. Was RJ wishing to ehar the suggestive edge in her voice? He was definitely imagining the sultry facial expressing, those pouty lips wrapped around him, green eyes staring up-,

"Yeah, what?" He demanded immediately as he felt the blood beginning to rush to his groin. 

"It's my first time having a drink in...a very long time. You up for being a drinking partner?"

"Listen, I don't do anything for free." MacCready shook his head. 

"For free?" Dorothy spoke quizzically, her eyebrows shooting up. 

"I run a business here, and if you want me to hang around like that, you'll have to purchase my services."

_Purchase his...**what!? **No. There's no way...He couldn't be a...no, she would say it or think it..._

"And, uh, how much do your services cost?" She asked delicately, eyes flitting up and down the man before her as she took a sip of her whiskey. Sure, he was a stud muffin, but she wouldn't have expected a man in that line of work to look so...rugged, and handsome. 

"300 caps," RJ answered and noticed the way Dorothy choked on her drink. "But for you? I'll do 200."

"I mean...as flattering as that is, I'm not sure I can. I've never, well," he stammered for a reasonable response, hoping she wouldn't offend him. MacCready perked a brow watching this blushing woman come apart before him. Why was she so nervous? Perhaps she needed more reassurance. So he copped a smirk and leaned back in his chair and threw his leg over his knee. 

"Look, lady, I know what I'm doing, that should incline you to want to hire me," He shrugged as he spoke confidently. Dorothy immediately scrambled for apologies and manners. 

"Well, of course, I'm not saying you don't! I mean. Well, who do you work with?"

"I'm my own businessman. It doesn't matter if it's man, woman, _brahmin_ I'll do the work as long as the caps are good,"

Dory felt faint. RJ watched as her face paled and a hand flew to her throat while her pre-war green eyes flickered up and down his body with great concern. 

"D-Do you...at least go to the clinic?" She asked hoarsely, trying to calculate her exit strategy from this demented bar. 

"I mean when I need it. It can be a bloody job."

She suddenly felt queasy and began to backpedal from the rugged man, initiating her retreat. Mac was all the more confused as he watched her and tried to object but she waved him off. 

"I'm sorry, I'm sure you're a nice guy, but I'm not comfortable purchasing an escort!"

"Escort?" MacCready parroted, the confusion spilling across his face as he blinked owlishly. 

"I'm sure that you know your way around, but I'm just not the type of person to go out and buy a prostitute, I hope this doesn't offend you," She apoligized, having almost made it to the threshold as she rubbed her burning face nervously and offered a sympathetic smile. 

"Prostitute?!" Mac exclaimed before he surprised Dory by doubling over in fits of laughter. "Lady, I'm not-oh my god!! I'm-I'm a hired gun! A mercenary! N-Not a f-fricking prostitute!" 

"Oh thank god..." Dorothy was thankful for the relief and stupidity she felt at that moment. Even she couldn't fight back a chuckled at her own ridiculous accusations. So she reached in her side pouch and withdrew a sack before tossing it on MacCready's lap. "150 now, and 150 when we get there, sound good?"

"Where's the location?" MacCready asked after he calmed down. 

"Diamond City."

"You know you could throw a rock from Goodneighbor and hit Diamond City, right?" The merc told her knowingly as he lit a cigarette. 

"Then you should have no problem getting us there."

He stared at the beautiful, fair-skinned specimen before him and pondered the deal for moment. 150 as insurance, and 150 as additional payment, that makes 300...

"All right, you've got yourself a deal...?"

"Dorothy," The woman smiled at him, making his stomach twist awkwardly. _Dorothy. _

"MacCready," He offered his hand to her. "RJ MacCready."

He could _feel _the softness of her hand the second she slid it into his own. Dorothy nearly shivered as she felt the rough grooves of scars and callouses that littered the planes of his palms. Despite the sex worker misunderstanding, Dorothy proudly concluded that this was a very rugged man. A 'roll-around-in-the-dirt' and 'slap-a bandaid-on-a-filthy-wound' type of guy. 

He was the kind of guy she never went for back in the day. 

Her type was the handsome man with the manicured lawn and sweater vest. The kind that offered vanilla sex at best. One stroke wonders and two pump chumps. 

Mac reminded her of the dirty construction workers that would cat-call and wolf-whistle at her as she sashayed down the pre-war sidewalks. Even though they annoyed her, she was flattered by the attention, secretly dreaming about semi-public sex with a man that used his hands for a living, a man that lived to watch her be pleasured, not the gentleman that would only have sex with her in a bed, under the covers with the lights off. 

And when Robert Joseph MacCready offered her his signature roguish smile, Dorothy felt something deep in the pit of her stomach writhing, boiling and simmering, and it spread to the apples of her cheeks, staining her face scarlet. _Hello, Trouble..._She thought to herself. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (A/N) Jesus, it's been a minute. Sorry, guys. I'm going to update on this story and my other Fallout/OC stories here and there,   
but I have an original book I am working on and a full time job that's taking presedence at this time. Don't worry. I'm not giving up yet. 


	5. Diamond City

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> MacCready successfully delivers the two vault dwellers to Diamond City. But when Nick Valentine turns up missing the two survivors break under the tension and end up spending a night in Diamond City Jail.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Crazy He Calls Me - Billie Holiday

**The Commonwealth**

**Diamond City**

**October 2287**

When MacCready agreed to escort the beautiful blond girl in the _way too snug _ Vault Suit, he had no way of knowing what kind of baggage she brought with her, which came in the form of a 5”9, leggy brunette in an identical vault suit named Nora. As a sniper, Mac prided himself on his patience...but Holy Prophet of _ Atom _these dames had made the trip to Diamond City a nightmare. 

Nora knew it was going to be a bad morning when she woke up before the sun and waited downstairs at the piss-rotten Hotel Rexford for Dorothy to stir from her slumber...Nora was extremely bitter about the once beautiful Hotel, recalling a time when trees were green, how she had attended the hotel for a conference about ‘Victims of Sex Crimes Coping with Authority.’ 

Dorothy was acutely aware that it was going to be a bad day the second she opened her eyes and realized it was 30 minutes after 7, and Nora had been waiting on her. 

All morning, Mac had been listening to the two bickering and arguing about...anything. He admitted to himself that the thin blonde had a sharp tongue on her, but Nora? She both said and did things out of spite. It was blatantly obvious Nora held no end of disdain for her step-daughter, but something in her kept forcing her to drag the poor girl all over the Commonwealth. 

_ I’m almost glad I didn’t have parents... _ MacCready grumbled internally, but then his thoughts shifted consequently to his dear son, Duncan and he grimaced. _ But Duncan needs his father. I need to tie up these loose ends so I can hire somebody to help me get that cure. _

“Alright, ladies!” Mac announced as they broke through the final rubble-ridden alley. “We’re here, Diamond City is just ahead.” _ Had to kill 6 of those mutant lame brains cause they were too busy fighting… _

“Holy shit,” Dorothy’s jaw unhinged as her eyes feasted upon the Great Green Jewel. Both Nora and Dorothy were baffled by the sheer size of Diamond City. It was fortified by rusted metal walls that were once a vibrant shade of green, supported by exterior guard posts that were constructed of scrap metal and tires. The statue of the Great Bambino still stood, the nickel in the statue having turned the exterior a lovely even shade of lime green with chalk-like degrading on the edges. The gate was shut, sealed at that, with a woman shouting at the small yellow speaker next to the gate. Nora sighed and decided to run interference. 

"Fenway Park," Dorothy breathed, her eyes scanning the sunbathed ruins. 

"I guess," MacCready scratched his head as he watched her wonder-struck eyes dart here and there. "It's the Great Green Jewel of the Commonwealth now. Diamond City."

"It's nothing how I remember it," Dorothy muttered, feeling her eyes burn as she fought back the onslaught of tears. 

"Really?" RJ pondered in his head when they last underwent renovations. "When were you here last?"

The blonde vault dweller let out a trilling laugh before sending him a nearly indistinguishable look.

"Roughly 210 years ago."

MacCready responded with a dubious expression, waiting for her to hit him with the punchline, but slowly realized the wistful look in her eyes was something he'd seen before...like when he passed Little Lamplight on his way out of the Capitol. Nostalgia.

_ No freaking way... _ He could hardly believe it. This dame had a chance to see the Great Green Jewel in its prime?

"Y-You're serious?" He stammered. And she nodded. "How? You'd have to be-,"

"Roughly 232-years-old? Yeah, I've got a killer face regime," Dorothy snorted before she fell silent. "I'm pre-war. When the bombs dropped my whole family was shoved in a vault. It ended up being a cryogenic experiment, to preserve human life as long as possible. I only just recently thawed out.”

He was carefully dancing around the core issue of the subject at hand and they watched silently as Nora chatted up the dark-haired woman at the gate. _ If she's not a reporter, I'll eat my own shoe... _ She thought to herself. Dory had plenty of time in school to acquaint herself with people of other majors. If that red reporter's cap didn't scream _ I'm a snitch _then nothing would. 

"Might I say you look great for your age?" MacCready joked, trying to lighten the mood between them as they waited. "Truly. Always did have a thing for older women."

Instantaneously, Dorothy’s face burned fifteen shades of red before finally settling on scarlet. Her face felt brilliantly warm and she immediately turned away from the grinning merc. "Shut up, MacCready, you aren't getting paid to make jokes,"

"But I am getting paid." He reminded her knowingly. The two suddenly jolted when a horrific metallic screech pierced through the ruins, emanating from the city. It was the gate, shaking as it rose almost like a garage down. 

Once the gate opened, the mystery woman and Nora advanced inward. Dorothy went to follow but was halted by Nora's hand as she gestured for them to wait. Impatient, Dory clenched her jaw and folded her arms across her chest. Mac watched her perturbed behavior and couldn't help but smile. She was pouting just like a child being told they couldn't have a sugar roll. 

"I take it you guys don't get along very well," Mac spoke decidedly and approached the large statue of the Bambino. 

"You can say that again," Dorothy muttered. 

"I take it you guys don't get along very well," He repeated and sent a sly look back at the young woman whose face soured at his snarky behavior. 

"Har-har," Dory rolled her grass-green eyes. "It's a bit of a story. And I doubt you have time for it either. You did just deliver us to Diamond City after all. I suppose you'll want to be paid and be on your way."

MacCready's face deepened into a frown. She did have a point. It was about this time he would start shaking the employer down for his share and would head back to the Third Rail. It was his job, after all. This was the normal everyday life of a merc. But as he stared at Dorothy, he realized he wasn't quite ready to head back yet. Sure, the girl was gorgeous, _ way out of his league, _but she seemed...well, he wasn’t about to make the wrong call on that one.

"Yeah, you're right," He nodded, scratching his head. "But we technically aren't _in _Diamond City yet. I’ve got some stops to make around town, couldn’t hurt to be sure you make it inside.”

Dorothy glanced at the young mercenary with a hint of a smile hanging on her gentle pink lips and Mac sucked in a quick breath. Dory wasn't a fool, she knew he was lying. She didn't know what for, but nonetheless she was grateful. After all, if she could hang out with anybody besides Nora it might save her from going completely brain dead. 

"Thanks," She responded once she’d gathered herself again. 

"It's only because you are paying me."

At long last Nora motioned for Dorothy and MacCready to follow. Once they were in the cool shade of the stadium, a chill crawled down the blonde vaultie’s spine as she watched the back of a pudgy man in a pewter gray suit retreat from the stadium tunnel toward a nearby elevator. As Dorothy neared, despite the severe lack of lighting and the dank stench of mold and piss, she caught the man’s eye. 

Looking at him reminded Dory of the cadavers that were brought into her pre-war med class. His dark brown eyes seemed like an endless void, the very essence of his life lacking. Although he carried himself with a sense of superiority, his very soul seemed absent. Everything that made an individual human lay within the eyes...and those very eyes were empty.

_ “MacCready,” _A sharp feminine voice jeered and Dorothy finally ripped her eyes off the stranger in the elevator. “Should have known you’d be back here looking for work.”

Dorothy was able to make out the faded red trench coat and matching reporter's cap. It was the woman Nora was talking to at the gate. She was a pretty thing, tall and athletically built with dark tresses framing her high cheekbones and hard-set face. 

“Piper,” MacCready grinned as he saw her. “Just dropping off the goods. What did you do this time to get yourself locked out of Diamond City?”

The woman, Piper, tossed her head back and let loose a round of sardonic laughter. 

“Freedom of speech, Mac, McDonough doesn’t like being called a synth by the press,” Piper explained with a toothy smile on her face before setting her hazel green eyes on the blonde vault dweller. “You must be Dorothy. Nora mentioned you were traveling with her.”

“And you must be a reporter?” Dorothy asked, cocking an eyebrow and settling her weight onto one hip. 

“However did you guess?” 

“I can smell a snitch from a mile away,” Dorothy waved her hand like she was fanning off a bad smell. Piper merely grinned that much larger. 

“It comes with the job, I'll do better to manage my stench," Piper retorted and Dorothy awarded her with a brilliant white smile. Dory’s lively green eyes darted to and fro for a moment and the smile slid from her face. 

“Hey, ah, where did Nora go?” She asked as she scanned the empty stadium tunnels for signs of the brunette vault dweller. 

“After she wrestled out information from McDonough,” Piper spoke thoughtfully. “She went to go talk to Nick Valentine. A Detective that specializes in missing persons...I’m sorry about your brother.”

_ Nick Valentine...now just why the hell did that name sound familiar? _Dorothy wondered to herself. 

“Yeah, thanks. It was nice meeting you,” Dorothy muttered as she and MacCready headed for the abysmal white light that was the exit. 

“My door is always open! Come in if you ever want to chat one on one!” Piper called after her and Dory rolled her eyes. 

“Only _ off the record!” _ She shouted back and heard a trilling laugh. 

“There’s no such thing as _ off the record _with reporters!”

Dorothy felt like a fresh-faced carney stepping into her first gig at the circus. Fenway Park was massive, just how she remembered the ballpark to be, but it was completely converted. Structures grew out of the earth and stands like metal weeds, flapping fabric lean-tos and farms decorated the once rich green turf. It was quite literally a community. Everything from the Dugouts to the undesirable Upper Stands was part of a functioning community. 

"Unreal," Dorothy whispered, completely awe-struck. MacCready gave a short laugh as he watched her. He supposed that if it were he going into the past he might have a similar reaction. 

“It’s a little after noon,” Mac spoke up, jostling her out of her reverie. “I don’t know about you but I’m starving and I don’t feel like waiting on your-well-whatever she is, to come back.”

Dorothy’s eyes flickered toward the mouth merc and she cracked a small smile. He was handsome, the more that she looked at him. His chestnut brown hair, windblown and unruly was tucked into his dark green eight-point military cover, accentuated with two rounds tucked into the sweatband. 

And then there were those ‘melt-your-heart’ baby blue eyes that sparkled with life and unspoken secrets. He was a sniper, guarding his secrets with long-range precision, careful not to let a soul in. But she could see a glimmer of resistance within him…

“Alright then, Trouble, what’s good around here?” The blonde asked and once again, Mac paused as he tried to decipher if he was imagining the double meaning in her words. 

“Is that even a question?” He snorted, nodding toward the tended area in the center of the square that was framed with bar stools. “Takahashi makes the best bowl of noodles in the Commonwealth.”

As the two claimed their creaky bar stools, a pre-war protectron waddled over to them, donning a floppy white chef's hat. He stopped a few feet shy behind the counter and picked up a wooden spoon with his tripod-like fingers and began stirring a pot of boiling noodles. 

"_ Nan-ni shimasho-ka?" _

“Uh…?” Dorothy’s jaw unhinged and MacCready cackled as he took the pleasure of watching her head spin. 

“He can’t say anything else,” RJ explained with a mirthful smile, wiping a lone tear from his eye. “Just say yes.”

After shooting her hired gun a sour look, she quickly muttered a ‘yes’ and offered Mac her middle finger. _ How lady-like... _He thought to himself as his impish smirk broadened. A moment later, two steaming bowls of noodles were set before them. The second the smell hit Dory’s nose she began drooling nearly profusely. 

The noodles tasted like the instant ramen crap she had eaten during her Freshman and Sophomore year of College. But after the irradiated filth she'd put in her mouth, this was a blessing..a god-sent blessing. 

“This is the bee's knees,” She moaned through a mouthful of noodles. Within seconds, she demolished the entire bowl and lay a fleeting hand over her stomach. Mac was finishing off slurping the remnants from the bowl when he looked over at her. 

One look at Dorothy and you could _tell _she didn’t belong in this era. She was much too soft and fragile. Her cheeks had begun to burn from the sun and radiation exposure, and her heart-stopping forest green eyes still held that mischievous glint on unadulterated innocence in them. Mac grimaced as he watched her take in the Diamond City square. 

He had become all too familiar with kids having the same temperament as this dame. He’d spent an awfully long time knocking those knuckleheads in line at Little Lamplight. It wasn’t a bad thing, but with Nora being the control-freak he had witnessed...it’s a wonder why they still traveled together? 

They were just like mongrels and mole rats. But exceptionally better looking. 

“It’s my brother we’re after, ya know?” Dorothy sighed, catching the mercenary off guard. Her confession nearly startled him right off his barstool. He quickly composed himself, setting his face into its normal stoic expression. 

“Nora isn’t my biological mother. My dad remarried her a couple of years ago-well, more than a couple of years, actually,” Dorothy gave an uneasy laugh. “I always thought she was a little young for my dad. When he introduced us, I was roughly 17, and I forced myself to look forward to his latest _fling. _But then he pulled the classic ‘soldier-off-to-war’ move and married her before he was sent to anchorage, ugh, the gall.”

Mac was very attentive as he listened. True to his work, he maintained his silence but took in every bit of information he was fed. From his perspective, the girl hadn’t had a chance to really talk to anyone. She really needed to let off some steam. Of course, he had a couple of unsavory ideas about how..._ Get it together! _RJ grunted quietly as he deterred his thoughts quickly and attempted to ignore the way blood rushed to his groin. 

“When I met Nora, she just...looked at me weird,” The blonde vault dweller's pink lips twisted into a frown and she threw one long leg over the other. “She never really tried to talk to me and treated me like...like the overly-friendly neighbor who knew every scandalous detail of my life. The ‘holier-than-thou’ cousin at the family reunion.”

“You’ve lost me,” The blue-eyed sniper admitted. 

“She acted like she was better than me. Like I was beneath her,” She explained and MacCready’s face hardened. Typical adults. Typical _mungos. _It eerily reminded him of those Tenpenny bastards in the Capitol that holed themselves up in the pre-war luxury hotel. 

“It didn’t matter much that we didn’t get along. I graduated from high school and moved on to further my education. I only ever saw her at the occasional brunch with my father or the annual Thanksgiving lunch and Christmas. And it would have stayed that way until she got pregnant, and my dad asked me to move in with them for a few months to help out so Nora could go back to work. Something about getting off the post-partum and back in the office.”

“So it only made sense I had to put my life, my education, on hold to help a woman who didn’t even like me,” Dorothy swiveled around on her barstool so that her back was leaning against the bar top. “But Shaun? He made it worth it. I read Goodnight Moon every night until I didn’t need the book anymore to read it to him.”

MacCready noticed the smile in her voice, the tug at her lips, and the dimple in her chin as she talked about her darling brother. She got this warm glint in her green eyes, he noticed, as she thought about those distant pre-war memories. Dorothy would have done anything for her little brother, including giving up her own life to help him. 

“Of course, the bombs fell and we all ran to the shelter. Our family and a few of our neighbors. But Vault-Tech didn't tell us we would be part of a...cryogenic experiment. We were in cryostasis until we just weren't. Somebody had come into the vault. A man, rugged-looking like a Raider, with these people in hazmat suits."

MacCready didn't like where this was going, and the noodles rolled in his stomach. 

"They opened my dad's pod, and the people in the suit tried to take Shaun, but he wouldn't let go. So the man with the scar shot him. We were still locked in our pods and I-I...just watched..." Dorothy covered her eyes with one hand and clenched the other into a fist. "They put us back under, but not before killing everyone else in that vault. Some type of malfunction they discovered with the chemicals. They meant to get rid of everyone and leave a spare. Nora and I, we weren’t both meant to walk out of that vault. They put us back under and it was like anesthesia..."

_ Ane-what? _Mac didn't dare speak up. 

"One second I was crying, the next it was blank. You don't have a comprehension of the passage of time. They could have frozen from a month to ten years, we have no way of knowing how cold the trail for Shaun is. But the next thing I knew, I was falling out of the cryopod, and I was seeing my dead father for the first time with my estranged stepmother."

It was silent following her words and immediately her face burned bright red as she realized the amount of word vomit she’d just unleashed. _ Why didn’t I just shut the hell up! _ Dorothy mentally bashed herself. _ Geez, Dory, 210 years in the can and you’ve turned into a real smooth talker. 10/10. _

“Can I just ask?” 

Dorothy nearly gasped in relief when MacCready finally spoke.

“Why do you still travel with her when the two of you clearly hate each other?” He asked, adjusting the strap of his weapon as he spoke. 

Dorothy opened her mouth to respond but found only a whispering choke when she tried to speak. _ What’s this? I don’t have an answer? _ And so she thought. Dorothy thought long and hard about why she continuously allowed herself to be drug around the Commonwealth like the General of the Minutemen’s little rag doll. Nora’s good ol’ _ second-in-command _if Preston wasn't within earshot to get his feathers ruffled. 

“Shaun. It’s for Shaun.”

MacCready nodded as he snuck a nearby Nuka-Cola (_ I don’t think he paid for that…) _and uncapped it, manning down a few harsh swallows before his eyes lay upon her again. He did not seem amused. 

“That’s bullshit,” He didn’t _think _he sounded harsh, but it probably came across that way judging by the way Dorothy flinched. “You know you could get just as much ground covered if the two of you split up. What are you worried about? She finds Shaun before you? I got some bad news for you, doll. Out here in the Wasteland, if people go missing, it’s going to take more than a couple of pre-war vault dwellers digging through the rubble to find them.”

“So, what?” Dorothy grimaced at the mouthy merc. “I just call it quits. Count my losses and pack it all up?”

“You gotta thing for twisting words, huh?” Mac narrowed his baby blue eyes at the fiery little blonde beside him. “Missing children isn’t something new. You’re still dethawing, Dorothy. It would do you both some good to find a partner familiar with the Wastes and to get out from whatever claws she’s got sunk into you.”

Dorothy went eerily still, her fingers skimming up and down the burns and rips in her dingy vault suit. As she flicked the fabric with her nails her brain nearly hummed as she fell into deep thought. The only word she could make out ricocheting in her skull was _ Shaun. _ She missed the feel of his little fingers gripping her pinky, the gummy smile every time he saw his Aunt Dory, the ridiculous fucking book _ Goodnight Moon. _

As she said, nobody had any concept of the passage of time while in cryostasis. It felt like a cold nap. It felt like she had just been holding him in her slender arms, cooing compliments at her ‘little man’ as she showered him with soft kisses on those cherub cheeks. 

_ She’s been quiet too long... _Mac thought uncomfortably as he watched her. Dorothy was caught somewhere between oblivion and a distant memory. A flurry of motion nearby caused both of them to look up as they caught Nora rushing through the plaza, bumping into pedestrians and vendors alike who shouted obscenely in her wake. 

“Nora?” Dorothy spoke through a bout of confusion. The brunette vault dweller’s face was hard as stone. She looked like the embodiment of a nuclear detonation as she raced toward the Diamond City gate, completely disregarding her companions. 

“Nora!” Dorothy shouted this time and bounced off the bar stool. She deftly moved through the crowd like water, slipping through and around the busy traffic of traders. MacCready cocked his head as he watched her. Her fluid movements and speed had her catching the strong-armed, clumsy vault dweller in no time. 

“Nora, stop!” Dorothy demanded, grabbing her arm and pulling like she was engaging the emergency brakes. “What’s going on?!”

“Let go!” Nora snarled, almost foaming at the mouth as she snapped at her step-daughter. 

“What happened with the detective?!” She pushed, refusing to let go of Nora despite her thrashing. 

“He’s not there!” Nora yelled and finally ripped her arm away from the younger woman. “He hasn’t come back after his last case, and his aid tipped me off on his location-,”

“So you just weren’t going to tell me what you were doing?” Dorothy snapped at the older woman, clenching her fists. “You were just going to charge right out of here and not tell me we had a lead?”

“Because it’s not a _ fucking _ lead, Dorothy!” Nora thundered, gesturing with her hands toward the gate. “He’s another _missing fucking person! _ Another person that needs my help! Another person that _ could _help me find Shaun!”

“Do you really believe you can cash in on all of this good karma one day? Seriously?” Dorothy pulled a face. “If it could even possibly be a lead on finding Shaun-,”

“I won’t know until I find him,” Nora hissed impatiently. 

“What the hell is wrong with you, Nora?” Dorothy barked at the older woman, frustration oozing through her pores. “You drag me halfway across the Wasteland to find a lead and then drop me off this skeevy fucking town like I’m in time out!”

“I don’t need your help,” Nora responded coldly and immediately Dorothy bristled. 

“And I don’t need you to tell me what to do,” She quipped. “You’re not my mother.”

“What a relief,” Nora sneered, glaring at her. 

“You never wanted to be a mother,” Dorothy’s voice was scathing, sharp like a whip as it cracked against the brunette vault dweller. “You were so quick to hop off the post-partum and back into your desk! I saw the abortion paperwork a month after you found out you were pregnant.”

_ Is this what a pre-war soap opera looked like? _Mac wondered as he watched the situation unfold. Nearby, onlookers stopped to watch the argument evolve from harsh hisses to stabbing shouts. The oddly-dressed security in catcher’s gear began to close in as they noticed the ruckus. 

“You act like your mother actually wanted you,” Nora’s words were like ice stabbing deep into his chest as Mac listened. Dorothy reacted similarly, eyes widening in disbelief, stepping backward to brace herself from the blow of her words. “You were trash that someone forgot to take out, and you constantly held your father back. A burden. That was all you ever were to him!”

“The only reason he stayed with you was because he got deployed. Do you think he actually wanted to be with you? You were a pretty thing from a rich family and your legs fell open easy.. He was leaving and you were a safety net,” Another round of white-hot insults sprang from the pretty lips of the young blonde who glared at the older woman with such hate and malice. 

“You can never make a _ whore _ into a _ housewife.” _

The sharp sound of skin on skin contact filled the slowly quieting square. Dorothy’s head was suddenly turned the opposite direction, her cheek burning and Nora’s right hand was stinging like it was full of pins and needles. 

There was only a split second of biting silence. 

Robert Joseph MacCready’s jaw dropped as he watched Dorothy retaliate with a hard-knuckled punch. Her fist cracked across Nora’s cheek and eye socket and instantly the woman buckled, clutching her eye for a mere moment before unleashing a battle cry and drove into Dorothy like a football player making a tackle. 

The screams between the two women were banshee-lie as ravenous fingers dove hungrily into hair as they rolled in the dirt, fighting for the dominant top. Nora found it first and sent two well-aimed strikes at Dorothy’s face. 

Just as Nora greedily went for a third, Dorothy growled and parried the punch, sending her fist flying at Nora’s mouth. The older woman grunted and lifted one of her hands that was supporting her weight to capture her bleeding mouth and opened up an opportunity for Dory to land a sharp jab at her exposed ribcage. 

Instantly, Nora recoiled with a gasp and Dorothy swept out Nora’s only supporting hand from the ground and Nora flopped onto the ground, Dorothy taking the top position. Just as the young woman dove to begin her violent assault of blows, Nora lifted her leg and kicked Dorothy in the chin. 

_ If this wasn’t so damn entertaining, I would have probably tried to stop it by now...It’s best to let nature take its course... _MacCready thought to himself as he watched the two women fighting, a strange part of him enjoying the altercation. 

“Alright, break it up-_ oof!” _A Diamond City Security guard attempted to step, grabbing Dorothy’s shoulder. He was met with her elbow snapping back into his groin. He limped off, trying to catch his breath as five of his other fellow guards dove into the throng, forcefully ripping the two women from each other. 

Dorothy was practically foaming at the mouth, snarling her hatred at Nora, who was still spitting at the young woman. Suddenly, a security guard swung his bat and hit Dorothy in the middle, causing a wheeze to leave her mouth as the air let her diaphragm. Nora wasn’t any luckier than she as another officer cracked his bat across the back of her head, disorienting her. 

With the two women temporarily incapacitated, all six Diamond City Security guards drug the two women off to the Security Office. 

The crowd began to disperse now with the lack of entertainment and MacCready finally spurred into action, chuckling as he grabbed his Nuka-Cola and headed for the Diamond City gate. At least that was finally done and over. Though, he admittedly would miss eyeing the legs on Dorothy. _ Crazy dames... _He thought humorously to himself. Now he could finally be on his way- But just as his foot touched the ramp, a realization struck through him like lightning and he groaned out in agony. 

_ “They didn’t fu-fricking pay me!” _

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End file.
